In hindsight, how do you think the United States handled the Covid-19 pandemic?

[EJ24]

?

[Inmate Trump]

Most of the problems were due to mismanagement and pure idiocy perpetrated solely by Donald Trump.

[Meclazine for Israel]

Over 1.1 million deaths would qualify the US response and prevention of the spread of COVID-19 as a dismal failure.

[dead0man]

wow

I was expecting to see more spread in the results.  7 of 7 voting for the middle option at this point.

[Hermit For Peace]

However well we did, the real important question is will we learn from it and do better next time?

[Crumpets]

Option 3, along with everyone else apparently.

Basically every decision from the initial restrictions to the eventual lifting of restrictions came several months too late and often with inconsistent and unclear details. I do think the vaccine rollout went about as good as we could reasonably expect for a country as, uh, stubborn as the US can be.

[T'Chenka]

Option 3 or 4

Anti-intellectualism is so widespread that taking a science-based approach was hurting governors and mayors politically. Canada did A LOT better overall by being less libertarian.

[JGibson]

Trump Administration (March 11, 2020-January 20, 2021): Trump bungled the handling of the pandemic in almost all aspects, and encouraged states to loosen restrictions (arguably prematurely), particularly indoor dining and church worship.
He did start Operation Warp Speed to get the COVID-19 vaccine rollout started.

Biden Administration (January 20, 2021-present): COVID vaccine rollout became more widespread, and anti-COVID vaccine sentiment rose (mostly among the right) due to backlash against COVID vaccine mandates.
Rolled back COVID restrictions, such as ending mask mandates during 2022  (and was planning to be on track to end them in mid-2021 before the Delta Variant ruined that plan).

[Ferguson97]

wow

I was expecting to see more spread in the results.  7 of 7 voting for the middle option at this point.

And now it's up to 17/22.

But ask those 17 people if they think the government should have done more or less, you won't get that level of consensus.

[Хahar 🤔]

Option 3 or 4

Anti-intellectualism is so widespread that taking a science-based approach was hurting governors and mayors politically. Canada did A LOT better overall by being less libertarian.

What made Canada's approach more science-based and how were the results a lot better?

[T'Chenka]

Option 3 or 4

Anti-intellectualism is so widespread that taking a science-based approach was hurting governors and mayors politically. Canada did A LOT better overall by being less libertarian.

What made Canada's approach more science-based and how were the results a lot better?

Our deaths per capita were a lot lower, and more or less a lot of Canadian policies and actions could be compared to blue states (though more cautious and patient when it came to easing restrictions). If we contextualize it like that, the question is basically "what made blue states' approach more science-based (than red states)"?

I guess maybe I framed it wrong by simply saying "science-based". What I was trying to get at was, the blue states were listening to scientific / epidemiologist recommendations for public health more and taking their advice more as compared with red states, with the overall goal being to minimize death and serious illness without causing an economic collapse.

Red states were either ignoring scientists or half-listening half-ignoring on the grounds that "listening to the scientists is going to hurt our economy a lot". If we compare for example Doug Ford (Ontario) and Ron DeSantis (Florida), Ford listened to scientists and health experts while DeSantis mostly didn't. Ontario achieved a much smaller death rate per capita than Florida, while the Ontario economy didn't collapse or even come close to collapsing.

[SnowLabrador]

Option 4.

[Alcibiades]

Option 3 or 4

Anti-intellectualism is so widespread that taking a science-based approach was hurting governors and mayors politically. Canada did A LOT better overall by being less libertarian.

What made Canada's approach more science-based and how were the results a lot better?

Canada’s Covid deaths per capita were well under half of those of the United States. Surely you can at least understand why many would consider this “a lot better”?

[Amenhotep Bakari-Sellers]

There always been plagues this one happened in an automatic world if chicken pox happened now instead of 80s we would of went virtual it's a changing world now that it's virtual, some people rather retire than work now that's why there are Labor shortages

We still have no cure for HIV, you can die from it, but it won't be cut short like in the 80s if you take meda

[Pres Mike]

Disaster. We should never have had mask mandates and never closed down schools. And before anyone argues with me, the vast majority of Americans agree with me. If another pandemic hits, its very unlikely we will have mask mandates again thank God. Even Fauci said it was unlikely to return even if he thought it was needed.

We won the mask wars!

[President of the great nation of 🏳️‍⚧️]

And before anyone argues with me, the vast majority of Americans agree with me.

Well, then, you must be right. The American people have never been wrong on any issue before!

[Del Tachi]

Option 3 or 4

Anti-intellectualism is so widespread that taking a science-based approach was hurting governors and mayors politically. Canada did A LOT better overall by being less libertarian.

What made Canada's approach more science-based and how were the results a lot better?

Canada’s Covid deaths per capita were well under half of those of the United States. Surely you can at least understand why many would consider this “a lot better”?

Most developed countries have comparable levels of covid death once you adjust for the overall pre-existing health of the population.  Canada had less covid death mostly because Canada was already healthier than the U.S., which isn't an immediate policy failure that can be attributed to Trump, Biden or anyone else.

[T'Chenka]

Option 3 or 4

Anti-intellectualism is so widespread that taking a science-based approach was hurting governors and mayors politically. Canada did A LOT better overall by being less libertarian.

What made Canada's approach more science-based and how were the results a lot better?

Canada’s Covid deaths per capita were well under half of those of the United States. Surely you can at least understand why many would consider this “a lot better”?

Most developed countries have comparable levels of covid death once you adjust for the overall pre-existing health of the population.  Canada had less covid death mostly because Canada was already healthier than the U.S., which isn't an immediate policy failure that can be attributed to Trump, Biden or anyone else.

So you're just going to hand-wave away vaccine passports, mask mandates, semi-lockdowns, as if they didn't have an effect?

[Property Representative of the Harold Holt Swimming Centre]

There's a story about King Canute that's worth bearing in mind when considering whether country X or Y did well at handling Covid.

[BG-NY]

Didn’t shut the borders/airports down quickly enough, the government lockdown to “stop the spread” was a terrible policy, and too many state/local governments shut down, and took too long to reopen/lift restrictions.

[Stranger in a strange land]

wow

I was expecting to see more spread in the results.  7 of 7 voting for the middle option at this point.

It was a mixed bag overall:
- The initial restrictions were very sloppy and uncoordinated
- Conflicting messages from public health officials left people confused about what to do and who to believe
- The COVID aid packages were very helpful in preventing a total economic meltdown, but at this point, it's obvious that they contributed to inflation and raised the national debt
- The vaccine's development and rollout were handled well, despite a high level of skepticism and hesitancy.
- In some areas, mainly liberal cities & suburbs, mask mandates and school closures persisted LONG after they should have been lifted
- The social disruptions and changes caused by COVID are probably beyond the government's ability to do much about

In late 2020/early 2021, I would have said the US response was an abject failure and one of the worst in the world, but now, largely due to the relatively successful vaccine rollout and the fact that most aspects of normal life have returned, I'd say it was bad but not catastrophic. Many countries that initially handled the outbreak well suffered huge outbreaks with much sickness and death later on, and many that initially handled it badly came through relatively okay.

[jojoju1998]

Option 3 or 4

Anti-intellectualism is so widespread that taking a science-based approach was hurting governors and mayors politically. Canada did A LOT better overall by being less libertarian.

What made Canada's approach more science-based and how were the results a lot better?

Canada’s Covid deaths per capita were well under half of those of the United States. Surely you can at least understand why many would consider this “a lot better”?

Most developed countries have comparable levels of covid death once you adjust for the overall pre-existing health of the population.  Canada had less covid death mostly because Canada was already healthier than the U.S., which isn't an immediate policy failure that can be attributed to Trump, Biden or anyone else.

So you're just going to hand-wave away vaccine passports, mask mandates, semi-lockdowns, as if they didn't have an effect?

The US never had a true shut down.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

Over a million people are dead, a third of the population will likely have some negative long-term health impacts, and we are still grossly unprepared for a future pandemic of equal or worse severity.

It wasn't an apocalypse (though it still might precipitate one), I voted "complete disaster with almost nothing done right". Vaccine development was done as well as could reasonably be expected, and we didn't crash the health care system. That's about it. We didn't learn a damned thing.

[T'Chenka]

Option 3 or 4

Anti-intellectualism is so widespread that taking a science-based approach was hurting governors and mayors politically. Canada did A LOT better overall by being less libertarian.

What made Canada's approach more science-based and how were the results a lot better?

Canada’s Covid deaths per capita were well under half of those of the United States. Surely you can at least understand why many would consider this “a lot better”?

Most developed countries have comparable levels of covid death once you adjust for the overall pre-existing health of the population.  Canada had less covid death mostly because Canada was already healthier than the U.S., which isn't an immediate policy failure that can be attributed to Trump, Biden or anyone else.

So you're just going to hand-wave away vaccine passports, mask mandates, semi-lockdowns, as if they didn't have an effect?

The US never had a true shut down.

I'm aware. He's hand-waving Canada's methods and implying that any and all restictions didn't affect the death count.

[Del Tachi]

Option 3 or 4

Anti-intellectualism is so widespread that taking a science-based approach was hurting governors and mayors politically. Canada did A LOT better overall by being less libertarian.

What made Canada's approach more science-based and how were the results a lot better?

Canada’s Covid deaths per capita were well under half of those of the United States. Surely you can at least understand why many would consider this “a lot better”?

Most developed countries have comparable levels of covid death once you adjust for the overall pre-existing health of the population.  Canada had less covid death mostly because Canada was already healthier than the U.S., which isn't an immediate policy failure that can be attributed to Trump, Biden or anyone else.

So you're just going to hand-wave away vaccine passports, mask mandates, semi-lockdowns, as if they didn't have an effect?

The U.S. implemented vaccine mandates, mask mandates, lockdowns and other social distancing measures to an extent similar to Canada and other Western democracies.  There are countries that did a lot less than the U.S. and had fewer deaths (i.e., Finland, Mexico, etc.)  There is not a clear relationship between NPIs and the amount of covid death in a jurisdiction.   

The way you frame the relationship is backward.  Your posts in this thread are tantamount to saying that heavy-handed, Democrat-led responses to the virus definitionally are science-based approaches.  A lot of Democrat-led jurisdictions did things in the name of covid mitigation that were never justified by science (like vaccine mandates for children, requiring masks be worn outdoors, or prohibiting certain "non-essential" businesses from operating even with remote or curbside service.)